I think there's a difference between learning how to play the game and play it well, and adhering to a strict set of rules that only a very small "hardcore" percentage of the FFXI population adhere to. I wanted my White Mage to be great, so I made sure to get the proper gear, buy my spells in advance, and skillup my stats. But I wasn't willing to abandon white mage because some people prefer RDM or SCH at the end game levels. That would have been silly.

The reason most of this was brought up in the first place was because someone seems to have put the idea in BoB's head that only certain jobs get parties and if you're not one of those jobs, you're out of luck. I just wanted him to know that personal experience has shown me that this is not true. There are general standards that most people in the game adhere to. White mages heal, warriors attack, etc etc. To go against those things is unusual because then, why even play those jobs? But then there are uber hardcore rules that certain players demand which can quite easily be ignored because chances are, you're not even going to run into too many of those people or those situations where you'll be denied simply because you are not the absolute strategically perfect job/character/player.

There's nothing wrong with wanting your character to be the ultimate. I'm leveling SCH and I'm aware of how beneficial it will be for my white mage. But again, I'm doing it because I want to and not because I feel I'll be excluded if I didn't. I very much doubt that I wouldn't be able to get parties if I stuck with /blm. And anyone who would reject you based on such things is just being unusually picky. And in the 4+ years I've been playing the game, I have run into few such picky people. Most people expect you to be a generally good player. Know what you're doing and don't get people killed. Beyond that people are pretty flexible. Basically, there aren't as many soup nazis in the game as some people make it out to be.